Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Review Showdown: Cthulhu v. Zombies

Steve Jackson Games recently released two horror themed dice games, Cthulhu Dice and Zombie Dice. Both areas of horror strike different buttons with me. So, how do the two games stack out. Keep Reading to learn more about the battle of the horrific dice games!

Components

Cthulhu - The twelve sided die is really cool with the eye of horus, the yellow sign, tentacles and more. A very high quality of the die does not make up for the plastic bag for storage or the fact that the contents only include the die, green gaming stones, the bag and a rule set. You do not need anything else to play the game unlike Zombie Dice.

Zombie - The dice are not as cool as the cthulhu die, but they come in three different kinds, green, yellow and red (more on what that means later). The storage container is functional as well as interesting; much better than a simple plastic bag. On the other hand, you need a sheet of paper a pencil to play the game in addition to the contents.

WINNER - Zombie Dice

Theme

Cthulhu - The Cthulhu theme sticks very well with the idea of the game, drive the other cultists insane. Fortunately, like any good Cthulhu game, all players can lose. Insanity = Cthulhu or vice versa.

Zombie - You play as a zombie, unlike most other zombie games. Your goal is to eat brains without being shotgunned.

WINNER - Tossup

Rules

Cthulhu - Everyone is a cultist. You try to drive the other cultists insane. Even if you have no sanity left, you remain in the game and can work to drive others insane (and potentially regain your sanity and win). Very simple game about eliminating competition. Not a ton of decision making and could result in some arguing over strategy.

Zombie - The three colors of dice represent the difficulty in surviving the die roll. You randomly draw three dice from the cup and roll them. Each brain is one point, each shotgun is damage and each footstep is a die you would roll again if you press your luck. After rolling, you can decide to press your luck and continue as many times as you want until you pass or receive three shotgun blasts. If you get three shotgun blasts, you get no points this round. If you pass, you get a point for each brain you rolled. First player to thirteen wins. The game is essentially a press your luck game.

WINNER - Zombie

FINAL SCORE

Cthulhu - 1Zombie - 3

Zombie is simply more fun and likely to be a bigger hit with casual gamers or as a filler game. It would probably be a fun game on Halloween.

4 comments:

Cthulhu Dice is meant to be played in under 10 minutes. It runs fast, and isn't complex. Pick someone, throw the dice, read the dice. They then retaliate. Pass the dice to the left, lather, rinse, repeat.

Zombie Dice takes significantly longer, and involves a much higher degree of strategy. Yes, it's still a quick game (about 20 minutes to half an hour), but you can play several games of Cthulhu Dice in the time it takes to play one game of Zombie Dice.

Cthulhu Dice makes for a great, quick game that you can toss in your pocket (hence the cheap bag, though a nicer cloth one would be great, albeit more expensive) and play on the fly. Zombie Dice isn't that portable, which makes it lose out in the "impromptu game" sense.

That said, I'm a fan of both. Just make sure you give Cthulhu Dice its' fair shake...it's good at what it's meant to do. :D